The 2024 Student Government Association (SGA) Big Three Candidate Forum was held on March 20 at the Bayou Bijou in the Student Union at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
The candidate forum was a public event open to all students, faculty, or friends of the university where candidates running for the Big Three offices expressed their positions on university issues, ideas, development of the campus and what makes them suitable for their position in preparation for elections.
The Big Three offices are student body president, vice president and treasurer.
The parties for SGA elections 2024 are ACTION and EXCEL.
Representing ACTION, Cade Roy is the candidate for student body president, Jasim Ali is the candidate for student body vice president and Brooke Davenport is the candidate for student body treasurer.
Representing EXCEL, Frank Clavelle III is the candidate for student body president, Isaiah Crawford is the candidate for student body vice president and Sean Myers is the candidate for student body treasurer.
At the Big Three Candidate Forum, all six candidates expressed their desire to advocate for the student body’s needs and interests.
Despite the two parties being opponents, they both share a common ground, which is the ultimate goal of serving the university and the student body.
At the forum, the candidates were given the opportunity to introduce themselves, their involvement, party platform, as well as why they think they would be the best candidate for their position.
All candidates come from varying backgrounds, and are also heavily involved in various organizations across campus. This diversity in the candidate pool allows for the different perspectives and voices in the student body to be heard.
“I’ve been involved in a variety of different things, honestly you name it I’m probably involved in it. I get to see all the different walks of life that are on campus and that is something that is truly important. I get to see the struggles that our students have, I get to hear the voices of our students, I get to see all the different issues that our university has,” Myers said.
Following the introduction section was the questions portion, where the candidates for a position were given two minutes to answer each question in rotation with the candidate of the opposing party.
The questions ranged from topics such as the responsibilities of each position and what the goals of the candidates would be if elected into office as well as university and student issues, among others.
A question for the student body president candidates was: “What sets your campaign and party platform apart from other campaigns, past and present?”
In response, Clavelle III answered, “We made sure to have a diverse pool of student candidates and college presidents, a diverse range of students who can really represent the student body at UL. We have representation from five of the six Panhellenic sororities on campus, representation from NPHC, and representation from smaller organizations and larger organizations.”
A question for the student body vice president candidates was: “What plans do you have to improve the internal organization as well as manage the already established duties of vice president?”
Ali said, “I think this organization has been really good about doing things but I don’t think we’ve been as good about promoting the things that we do for the student body. My job would be to make that more transparent and I want everyone to be able to see the job that the current SGA has done and also how we work to enhance these measures in the future.”
Finally, a question for the student body treasurer was: “What is your main objective for this specific role of treasurer and what preparations have you done to understand the entirety of this role?”
Davenport responded, “I currently serve as the vice-chair on the finance committee, where we assess all of the organizations who are requesting funding from SGA. If elected to this position, we’re going to make it more transparent and keep students up to date whether that be Instagram, or me knocking on every single dorm room and telling you what is going on,”
Wrapping up the question segment for each office position, all the candidates were asked: “What is something you want students to remember about you on April 3rd – 4th whenever they go to cast their votes?
“I hope people view our campaign and say we did it the right way and say that we did it in a fun way. I never want people to think that they couldn’t come up to me and talk,” Roy answered.
Crawford said, “I want people to remember the passion that I came to this election with.”
All six candidates answered the questions that they were given with great confidence and composure, showing the immense amounts of effort they have been putting in whilst preparing for elections.
SGA elections for Big Three, college presidents and college senators will be held from April 3 at 6 a.m. to April 4 at 4:30 p.m., students will be able to vote through a link that will be sent to them. More information on elections can be found on SGA’s official Instagram account @ulsga as well as their website at sga.louisiana.edu.
All UL Lafayette students are highly encouraged to partake in elections and cast their votes to choose the future student leaders who will be representing the student body.